Tape or adhesives are often used to fasten objects to other surfaces. A draw back to using tape in most applications is that once applied it can not be removed then re-used; and if it is forcibly removed, damage to the paper or the surface often results. The problem with adhesives is that they may be to permanent for a given application and are most often not re-useable. Non-resilient materials such as "Funtack.RTM." by Lepage (blue putty like substance used for holding paper on walls), do not have sufficient adhesion for many applications.
Applicant is aware of Post-it.TM. notes manufactured by 3M of Minneapolis, Minn., which are well known in the prior art for allowing releasable mounting of sheets of paper to solid objects. The Post-it.TM. notes are used for making annotations which may be temporarily placed where it is convenient and removed without leaving residue from the chemical adhesives found on the back of such notes. A further advantage of Post-it.TM. notes is that removal of the note does not ordinarily damage the surface to which the note was mounted.
Applicant has devised a reusable pad which may be used in a similar fashion to Post-it.TM. notes with the advantage that sheets of unglued (i.e. ordinary) paper may be adhered to the surface of solid objects and removed therefrom without leaving a residue and without damaging the surface. Further advantageously, the pad of the present invention allows for the releasable adhering of much larger sheets of ordinary paper or heavier sheets, for example, laminated paper or cardboard in larger poster sizes. These advantages, which are objects of the present invention, may be obtained in part due to resilient characteristics which distinguish the pad of the present invention clearly from conventional adhesives which would include the releasable adhesive used on the back of Post-it.TM. notes.
A further application of the pad of the present invention is the prevention of slippage of objects placed onto otherwise smooth surfaces such as that of a table top or desk top. One example is the common frustrating situation of a telephone placed on a desk top where the user, when on the telephone, has to reach to obtain something while at the same time holding the telephone handset to the user's ear. The result is the telephone slides off the desk and falls to the floor. Placing the pads of the present invention under the feet of the telephone inhibit the sliding of the telephone over the desk due to the natural tackiness, as better described hereinbelow, of the adhesive pad. This is to be distinguished from conventional rubberized anti-slip devices which do not have a natural tackiness designed as part of their inherent properties.
An example of one use of the adhesive pad of the present invention is to place at least one pad on a side or front surface of a computer monitor. The pad is left in place and when it is desired to place sheets of paper, for example small notes or the like, onto the monitor temporarily, the sheet of paper is merely pressed against the pad. When the note is no longer required, it is merely peeled from the pad leaving the pad behind adhered to the monitor surface. Advantageously then, because the pad is left in place on the monitor or computer surface, or for that matter on any other convenient surface where a person may wish to place notes to him or herself, such as a refrigerator in the home, on a door, on a car interior surface, or the like, because the pad is often viewed by the user when a piece of paper is not adhered thereto, the interior of the pad may support therein an advertising logo or like commercialized message.
Another use of the adhesive pad, and which is an object of the present invention to provide, is to support not only the logos or the like held encapsulated within the interior of the pad and viewable through the pad, (i.e. in one embodiment the pad is translucent or closely approximates transparency), but also to replace the common annoying use by children of stickers bearing the likenesses of their favourite pop stars or other comic books heroes or the like. Such stickers are often brought home by children and adhered to the children's bedroom walls, bedroom doors, bedroom furniture and the like and have proven to be very difficult to remove especially without damaging the painted or finished surfaces. It is an object of the present invention to provide a replacement for these stickers whereby the likenesses which appeal to the children are embedded into the pads and the pads themselves used by the children instead of adhesive stickers.